The beauty of Friendship
by Fleck the Black Sand Hyena
Summary: Everyone knows that Erik, Benvolio and Lenox are best friend, and always goes everywhere together, however, how did their unique friendship start?


**So this is a new story dealing with the trio, since I love them very much. Erik, Benvolio and Lenox are my favorite characters I have ever created, and their friendship and bonds.**

 ** **Disclaimer: I don't own Aslan and Shenzi, also Narnia and Elephant Graveyard.****

* * *

Erik, the prince of Narnia, a snow-white lion cub, with two big golden eyes, which only be shared between him and his great father, Aslan, the king, stared out of the den and sighed. Due to his position as a prince, and also his weird white color, not so many lion cubs wanted to play with him, besides his supposed girlfriend, Christine.

Erik huffed, the little lioness cub was nowhere to be seen, he concluded that she must have abandoned him and went to play with someone else, which she often did.

"Erik," his father, Aslan, the huge golden lion, walked in, "Why don't you go out? The weather is beautiful today."

Erik sighed and stood up, "dad, I don't have any friends, the other lion cubs see me weird, and they are always afraid of me."

"What about Christine?" Erik's older brother, crown prince Edmont, a golden cub asked, "isn't she your friend?"

The white cub shrugged, "I don't know where she is, and I bet she's with other cubs, she might be my friend, but we're not always on the best turn."

Aslan sighed and gently nuzzled his son's head, "Sometime having a friend need some coincidence, if you don't go out and try it, why do you know that there isn't your friend out there?"

Erik sighed, thinking of his father's words, and admitted that he was right, maybe his life-long friend will be out there. He yawned a bit and stretched his body before heading out.

Aslan glanced at his direction and smiled a bit before laying down with Edmont.

Erik wandered around on the beautiful grassland, the sun is shining from above, and a blow of gentle wind cast through his white fur. Just then, he spotted a strange creature with orange underfur and some black strip on its body.

The lion cub crouched down and approached it before suddenly jumped up, "Who are you?" He demanded.

The creature yelped and stood up right away, hearing the noise, Erik could finally tell that it is a cub, but what kind of cub, he didn't know, he eyed the cub suspiciously.

"What do you think you are doing?" The cub suddenly yelled, he then growled and leaped out to tackle Erik, Erik gasped and bit him quickly, but the cub didn't give up, he bared his claws and stroke Erik. The two cubs rolled onto the grass, pawing and fighting with each other. The voices of their growls echoed through the kingdom of Narnia. After several hours, they finally separated and lay on the ground together, panting heavily. There were some blood and mud on Erik's white fur.

The other cub giggled, "Hey, you look like a hyena."

Erik chuckled, looking to him, "who are you, and what species is you?" He asked.

The cub rolled up and stood up, sighed a bit, "well, my name is Benvolio, and, not so recently, I still thought I am a Lize," he paused, seeing Erik's puzzled expression, "a mix between lions and zebras," Benvolio blushed, "but now I know that I am a tiger. Since I was adopted by the lions here, and a different species, not many cubs would want to play with me." He finished, gazing to Erik.

"Same with me." Erik realized, "other lion cubs don't play with me because I am the prince, and also having a strange color."

"You're the prince?" Benvolio's eyes widen.

Erik nodded, "but I won't be one in front of you, by the way, my name is Erik." He chuckled.

Benvolio smiled, "Then we're friends, right?"

"Yes." Erik cackled, "nice to meet you, though, Lize." He winked.

"Hey!" Benvolio yelled, but giggled afterwards, "Nice to meet you, too."

Since that day, Erik often hang out with Benvolio, the two loved to play pranks and did all sort of things together. After a week after they met, Erik and Benvolio were chasing each other in the forest near the border of Narnia, when they suddenly heard a loud cry for help. The two cubs stopped, looking to each other, crouched down and crawled to the source of the voice. Their eyes widen when they saw a black leopard cub being surrounded by a group of cheetah cubs. The cheetahs were sneering and kicking the young cub, making the cub cried out in pain, and bled from their attack.

"L-Leave me alone." He pleaded to his bulliers.

"Nah," the cheetahs snarled, "you are only a weak, little kitty, and a freak. Why do you think we will stop?" They burst out a laughter, the leopard yelped and tried to crawl away. But one of the cheetah cub grabbed him by his tail and dragged him back.

Erik let out a deep growl, but he remained at the same spot, being a quiet audience. Benvolio whimpered, he stepped forward a bit, but then backed up immediately, not sure what to do.

Suddenly, he sensed Erik cackled, Benvolio turned to him right away, "Having any plan, genius?"

A smile was on Erik's face, he leaned to Benvolio and whispered his plan into his ears. The two cubs began walking toward the Elephant Graveyard, where the infamous hyenas live. Everyone had heard about, Shenzi, the matriarch of the hyena clan, she was said to kill lion cubs and ripped out their heads. Erik and Benvolio paused at the entrance of the Graveyard, and yelling out loudly to it, "Stupid hyenas, come and fight us! Lions are the best!"

Not for long, they heard what they wanted to hear, the angry roar of hyenas. Thousands of them growling and ran out of the Graveyard like a huge charging army, Erik grabbed Benvolio and jumped into a bush nearby, the two then used the bushes as cover and crawled back to where they had seen the little black leopard cub. When the hyenas' voices getting near, Erik quickly dragged the leopard cub into the bushes with him and Benvolio. The cheetahs looked at each other in confusion, shaking their heads and drifted their eyes around, then someone among them let out a gasp as she pointed to where the hyenas coming from. The cheetahs all whimpered and quickly run off from the forests.

The hyena troops approached, they stopped as they didn't see anything. The matriarch Shenzi, who was at the front leading the hyenas, raised her eyebrows as she glanced around, muttering, "I was sure that I heard some kitties' voices here." She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes, "I guess we will have to teach them a lesson next time. Retrieve!" The hyenas huffed and turned around, slowly trotting back to the Graveyard while still eyeing around.

Erik tried desperately to make himself seems as small as possible. He whimpered and looked to Benvolio and their guest. Benvolio stared at the direction of the hyenas and yelped, the little leopard cub was trembling hardly.

"W-Who are you? Why are you helping me?" He finally managed to say.

"I am Erik, and this is Benvolio, we helped you because we think that no one deserves to be treated like the way the cheetahs had done to you." Erik said, shrugging.

"But I am only a small, useless cub." The little cub sighed as tears formed in his eyes.

"No one is useless," said Erik, with a smirk, "Like my friend, Benvolio, the reason why he was born was to be a clown and entertain everyone." He grinned mischievously.

"I agree with Erik," said Benvolio, all of a sudden, he glared at him, "Wait, Erik, did you just say…?"

Erik chuckled, "You heard nothing, right?" He glanced at the leopard cub, a large grin was on his face.

The cub giggled, "Yea, I heard nothing, by the way, my name is Lenox, and thank you for helping me." They all smiled at each other, and knowing that from that moment on, they are bind to each other.


End file.
